Opening ceremonies: MileHiCon Island, with all the guests dressing in props identifying them as a character from Gilligan’s Island. Connie Willis had prepared introductions in verse to be sung to the Gilligan’s Island theme as well as island/castaway-themed trivia questions.

*This was the first year we voted for the Fan Guest of Honor at the convention, leading to a string of successful campaigns by the Link family in successive years.

MileHiCon 30

October 23-25, 1998

Chair: Linda Nelson

Guest of Honors: Lawrence Watt-Evans, Kevin Anderson

Art Guest of Honor: Ellisa Mitchell

Toast Master: L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

The year we began the literacy auction.

MileHiCon 29 (aka Donnercon)

October 24-26, 1997

Chair: Linda Nelson

Guest of Honors: Michael Resnick, S.M. Stirling

Art Guest of Honor: Liz Danforth

Media Guest of Honor: George Johnsen

Toast Master: Ed Bryant

The year we thought—with a great lineup and a media guest connected to Babylon-5—that we would break a thousand for the first time. That was before the snow started on Friday night. By Saturday morning we were completed snowed in, the city was shut down, and Donnercon had begun!

MileHiCon 28

October 25-27,1996

Chair: Linda Nelson

Guest of Honors: Frederik Pohl, Jennifer Roberson

Art Guest of Honors: David Martin, Diana Harlan Stein

Media Guest of Honor: Richard Hatch

Toast Master: Wil McCarthy

The year of the Frederik Pohl incident! Richard Hatch was busy that year trying to promote a new version of Battlestar Galactica (not the one that finally emerged).

MileHiCon 27

October 20-22, 1995

Chair: Linda Nelson

Guest of Honors: Poul Anderson, Greg Bear

Art Guest of Honor: Phil Foglio

Media Guest of Honor: Haley McLane

Toast Master: Simon Hawke

MileHiCon 26

October 21-23, 1994

Chair: Linda Nelson

Guest of Honor: Ellen Datlow

Art Guest of Honor: Ruth Thompson

Fan Guest of Honor: George "Lan" Laskowski

Special Guest: David Barron (Klingon Language Institute)

Toast Master: Larry Niven

The cabaret had been so popular the previous year that we reprised it. Larry Niven demonstrated his flexibility, and Ellen Datlow diagrammed the location of various human organs (liver, kidney, lungs) with magic markers on a t-shirt worn by medical model Gary Jonas.

Our anniversary year, where we asked back our former guests and several were able to attend. We also had a Pro/Fan Cabaret with several wonderful acts, including Somtow performing (on keyboards) both a classical work and the Sonic the Hedgehog Theme, with a curtain call of Porgy & Bess’s Summertime on kazoo. (Who knew you could get three octaves out of a kazoo?)

The plague year! Guest were dropping like flies. Sheri Tepper had to cancel for medical reasons about ten days before the con. Somtow was unable to speak at the guest of honor speeches because he had left the antibiotics he was taking and Susan Crites had to "interpret" for him. Erin McKee was flat on her back in the art show and missed the program—Peri Charlifu stood in for her. And Toast Master Connie Willis almost missed the program because she only realized that morning that it was at 10:30 instead of 11. Whew!

Poul's wife Karen Anderson presided over the Court of Love and a tournament was held. There was a lot of crossover between the SCA and DASFA/MileHiCon in those days, with many people active in both groups.